How PShenk started their logo design journey

Summary

Gravity Bear is a new video game company comprised of a small group of industry veterans. We need a logo that expresses a fun, open, quirky-but-cool vibe that lives up to our fun, open, quirky-but-cool name.

Company name

Gravity Bear

What inspires you and how do you envision the design for your business?

We started Gravity Bear to get back to the fun of making games. Many of us come from large-scale game development, and are burnt out on 3+ year development cycles on huge, ginormous teams. We remember how fun and exciting it was to make games "back in the day" and we're trying to recapture that spirit for both us and our fans.

We're not a "casual" games company that makes tiny puzzle games, and we're not a "AAA" games company that is trying to make the next World of Warcraft or Diablo. We're something in-between. A new company for a new era in games, taking the wide-eyed spirit of a retro era and melding it with the seasoned experience of contemporary game design.

Another way of looking at it... we're focusing more on what we think really matters. Back to the basics, back to the fun. But also taking advantage of all the new stuff that's happening out there. New platforms, new distribution methods, new ways of connecting with each other. The spirit of the old mixes with the possibility of the new.

We need a logo that expresses all that :) We are hoping that the logo will become the foundation for our site design and other promotional material.

*EDIT*

Maybe it will help to explain where the name comes from. I should give credit to my friend who thought of it... Many years ago when I first met him, he had a hobby of coming up with "stupid products", just for fun. Ideas for dumb and weirdly useless things that people just might pay money for. Anyway, one of the ideas was the "Gravity Bear". It's a stuffed toy bear that comes with an instruction book full of interactive games you can play with your child to teach them about gravity. You can throw it at them, drop it off the roof, tie a string around it's neck (special "gravitationally activating string" sold separately) and spin it around the room. There's no end to the learning and fun... it's GRAVITY BEAR!!!!

I thought it was hilarious and it stuck with me. I'm honored he let us use the name for our company.

So... I like a lot of things about that story. It's weird and offbeat and dry. It's stupidly funny, but it also says something about making your own fun, and putting a new spin on something ordinary.

I don't know if that helps or not, but I figured I should throw it out there :)

Wants

- It should probably have some kind of bear in it. But it should be subtle. No detailed drawings of a bear please.
- It should also have something to do with gravity. Falling seems the most straightforward, but maybe you'll come up with something more clever? It doesn't have to be literal either... something that makes you think of gravity could work (i.e. "heavy")
- It should be hip, a little edgy, a little street-wise... but also friendly and fun. We like retro. We like urban vinyls. We like pixel art.
- Ideally it's colorful, a mix of retro and contemporary palette.
- Here are some references, not at all comprehensive..
- http://pixeljunk.jp/#
- http://www.mediamolecule.com/
- http://polytroncorporation.com/
- Final art should be in vector format, if applicable, and layered PSD file otherwise.
- The logo should work on light or dark background (can be different versions). We will also need a black and white version.
- Logo needs to legible at a small size.

Don't want

- We DON'T want the logo to feel like a traditional "core" game company. We don't do post-nuclear holocaust games. We don't do gritty, violent or brooding angst.
- We also don't want cutesy, syrupy, rainbows and teddybears. Not ruling out teddybears, just not overly cutesy, syrupy ones ;)